With its imperial past, nationalist tradition, past westernization attempts, inverse orientalism toward populations from the East, and current neo-Ottomanist policies, Turkey presents an interesting case in which to examine the ideologies underlying its education system. Turkish schools began receiving a large number of Syrian refugees following…

The overarching goal of this design-based research was to explore WhatsApp's potential for facilitating and supporting speaking and pronunciation instruction in an EFL large-class speaking course. More specifically, this paper explored the perceived learning outcomes of WhatsApp-supported pedagogy in large English-speaking classes. Ninety-nine…

The current study adopts a mixed-method research design to foster English Language instructors' attitude toward professional development, self-efficacy beliefs, and reflective thinking. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory constituted the base and the professional development program was designed accordingly. The participants of the study were nine…

Pre-service English language teachers' school practicum is key to their learning to become a teacher. However, a number of challenges are observed in its implementation. This paper addresses this issue by investigating how engaging in practicum as peers can function as mentoring support and how this process can influence their selves. A cohort of…

Dynamic Assessment (DA) has lately taken the floor as an alternative by embedding instruction into assessment. Grounded in the dialogic teacher-learner interaction during an in tandem work, DA asserts that diagnosing the learners' matured abilities and needs, mediating them accordingly, and then observing their maturing abilities and microgenesis…

Study Abroad (SA) has often been referred as the ideal means to learn a second language due to the unique opportunities it brings to the learners. SA provides learners access to both formal and communicative learning contexts where they can interact with the members of the target language community. Existing studies identified various contextual…

Population displacements have occurred in tremendous amounts in the last few decades due to the collapse in civil order of the neighbouring countries of Turkey. This situation not only created a need for researchers to deal with the social, psychological and economical aspects of this forced mobility, but also with the acculturation process of the…

eTwinning is a telecollaboration initiative which was launched in 2005 by the European Commission. Turkey joined the platform in 2009 with a number of schools, teachers and projects. However, there is still plenty of room for studies on the role of eTwinning in the field of EFL. Aiming to discover the role of eTwinning in a specific Turkish EFL…

This study aims to examine refusal strategies of Turkish learners of English and explore their perceptions of social factors that are influential in their strategy use. The study was conducted at a private university in the west of Turkey, and eighty Turkish L2 learners enrolled at an English language preparatory program participated in the study.…

In recent years, increasing numbers of English language teachers have started to work internationally. As a result, expatriate English language teachers experience a challenging situation in which they have to adapt to a new environment which may be ethnically, linguistically and/or culturally different than theirs as well as working for…

Effective usage of nonverbal and verbal communication in Japanese such as gestures, mimics, silence and employing grammatical or lexical honorifics plays a significant role in determining the success of foreign language learners in obtaining their intended employment. This study examines the second language (L2) learning of politeness and social…

This paper reports a mixed methods study which aimed to improve Turkish pre-service English language teachers' competences and qualifications during their teaching practice experience (the practicum). The analysis of qualitative and quantitative data was framed by a sociocultural perspective focused around individual, cultural, and social factors…

Learning takes place in a particular social context and in interaction with others. One of the tools of mediation between the learner and the subject to be learned is talk. In a teacher training context, it is through the use of particular talk that trainers can guide and scaffold their trainees towards learning, and the basic premise is that…

Addressing the influence of sociocultural theory, current views of second language acquisition situate language learning in a much broader context than the isolated box of the classroom. There is need to consider second language (L2) acquisition practices more broadly. This study addresses differences between girls and boys of Kurdish ethnic…

The 5th International Conference on Language, Literature and Culture has been hosted by Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (Burdur, Turkey), in cooperation with Çankaya University (Ankara, Turkey) and Süleyman Demirel University (Isparta, Turkey). Our main aim has been to provide a forum for discussion, to facilitate integration in these fields, and to…